Archive for February, 2014

The only thing left is the final poly coat on the front, side, and backsplash and the glazecoat on the top. Final front:A different angle:

Note the slight “divot” taken out of the backsplash at the power outlet – I missed by about 1/8 of an inch when placing the outlet box against the stud. Due to code requirements, I have to have the divot taken out – outlet faceplates can’t be split between two different levels of wall backing. This is usually more of a concern in kitchens and bathrooms with tile backsplashes or decorative tile strips, but it’s just as much a concern here. Now that I think about it, I probably should have just planed down the backsplash to have it sit below the faceplate without having to take out the divot. Oh the joys of hindsight.

The left side backsplash:

All joints are mitred at 45 degrees, though I’ll need to drop in some wood filler in various places. A closeup of the tail:

Once the glazecoat goes on the still-slightly-visible height differences will be much less visible. I’m debating giving it a slightly darker stain before coating it, though – this is pretty much the level of contrast I was going for, but the countertop looks just a bit light to me. Opinions on that are welcome, though time to register them is limited.

I’ve gotten the doors mostly done, two of them are in place. I had a countertop of poplar, but there are two problems – one, the stain I used was way too dark with the poplar, and two, I don’t like the way the poplar grain goes from light to dark so rapidly. So, I’m redoing the countertop with 1×2 pine strips. It’ll take a while, but it’s already looking nice.

So this is what the front of the doors looks like:

All oak. The sides are 1×3’s, the middle is wainscotting in 3 1/2 wide strips. Yes, that’s normally the stuff you put on walls if you want wooden paneling. The back of the door is flat:

You can see the wainscotting doesn’t cover the whole back surface. The 1×3’s will be flush against the cabinet front, the wainscotting fits inside each door opening. Here’s what it looks like with the two outside doors attached:

That’s a bit dark, so here’s a closeup of the right door in place:

The middle door is still getting it’s wainscotting glued on, so it won’t be attached until tomorrow at the earliest. The light boards you see on top are the new countertop being built, the upright on the upper right is part of the old countertop (still in place, but not secured). You can see the old countertop just above the doors – I wanted a lot more contrast between the oak and the countertop. Once I finish assembling the countertop, I’ll have that contrast, since I’ll be using a very incredibly almost insanely light stain on it before glazecoating it. That will probably take me until the middle of next week at the earliest, simply because it takes so long for each pine strip to set enough to unclamp it and put on the next one.